Alabama State Troopers stand together with bingo advertised in the background during a state anti-gambling task force raid at Greentrack's bingo casino in early July 2010. (The Birmingham News/Beverly Taylor)

NORTHPORT -- Gov.-elect Robert Bentley said Wednesday he would dissolve Alabama's anti-gambling task force created by Gov. Bob Riley and saying that he would instead work with the attorney general to enforce gambling laws.

Bentley, speaking to reporters at a press conference, said he would be meeting with the newly elected attorney general, Luther Strange, to discuss an approach, but Bentley signaled a willingness to accept the reopening of electronic bingo operations, as long as they operate within the law.

"The task force is gone," he said. "If the laws are there people need to follow the law. They can not open back up illegally."

The matter of what constitutes bingo has been an issue in the courts, as has the question of whether the slot machine-like games in place at the casinos are really high-tech versions of bingo.

Bentley said any operation that wants to reopen will need to submit its machines to inspections by law enforcement who will determine whether the machines are permissible under the constitutional amendments passed for that particular jurisdiction.

"The law, as it is written, we have to look at it," Bentley said. "If they try to open back up, it has to be legal."